Cobbles

Whilst observing various areas around Manchester, the more I have noticed the hidden history on the roads.

 I love cobbled roads, and the way they cheekily peek through worn holes n the tarmac.Giving us a glimpse of the past.
The history survives under a thin layer, why do we bother covering them up, in such a ugly way? Can you imagine how long it took to lay these beautiful roads?
Ok, they are not the best with high heels, and force you to drive slower, is that so bad?  

Another Manchester Tour

Sorry guys I'm dragging you on another tour!
This walking tour was with a company called "New Manchester Walks" £6 for 3hours Our guide really knew his stuff. It covered many key places of Manchester, a great insightful day, these are a few images along the way....

Impressive chandelier from the Britannia Hotel, the hotel initially was a textile warehouse.

The landings overlooking the foyer, looks like a scene from the Titanic

This plaque was placed on a building which has replaced the  original. John Dalton had his office here, where he made his amazing discoveries, unfortunatly the building was destroyed in the War, along with many of his papers.

Interesting pub next to the Manchester Art Gallery

Detail from the coving  of the Art Gallery, just a small piece of detail in a beautiful space.

Apparently Lowry came here nearly every day to gain inspiration.

This is a fascinating futuristic building, I find it interesting how it mirrors the surroundings.

Check out the detail

A very grand doorway

The Royal Exchange Theatre which was initially used as a cotton trading exchange, the theatre is a circular steel and glass enclosure placed in the middle of the Great Hall of which the circular stage is surrounded by seating. It is too heavy to support itself on the floor so there are large beams attached to the pillers.

Apparently in the IRA bomb blast, it lifted the stge 6ft from the floor.

Detail from the Town Hall entrance

In the middle of the Town Hall is a quadrangle, which is fascinating, you wouldn't think it was the same building, apparently they don't clean the stone walls as it is in such high demand as a film set, part of Harry Potter was filmed here.

Window from the stunning John Rylands Library below

I spotted this street sign and immediately fell in  love with it, I would stick it on my lounge wall, although my other half might have a few words to say.

This is just down the road from Hotspur House, I liked the contrast of the yellow against the old brickwork


You have now reached the end of the tour, thank you for joining me!

Urbed Bus Tour

I went on the Urbed bus tour organised by Emily Crompton who did a talk the other day. Urbed specialise in urban design and sustainability. 
It was a brilliant 3 hour tour on a lovely old London Bus, with a running commentary from the bus driver who also works for Urbed and knows Manchester like the back of his hand, and of course the very lively Emily, who obviously loves her new job.

Our transport

Whilst waiting to go, I noticed the detail above the Holden gallery doorway, its beautiful.

You will have to excuse the quality of these pictures as they are taken through a grubby window of a moving bus.

This is Moss Side where there is a lot of house regeneration, the old houses have been flattened, and replaced with new, all except this one on the right, where the owner has refused to move.

At the end of each row of terraced houses, are these white ultra modern buildings, I'm not convinced.

A grand old building in need of a bit of TLC

"Skyhook" by Brian Fell


This sculpture is quite fascinating self supporting representing the past industrial area of Salford Quays area

The imperial War Museum - apparently the building is supposed to represent a broken cup and saucer!!?

The bridge linking the new "Media City",

everything feels ultra modern and squeaky clean

BBC offices

 Buildings in Media City, Its nice to see a bit of thought has gone into the design process, the one below could almost be mistaken for Lego.

One of the many old bridges

I love this old building, it has so much potential, it appears to be one of the old cotten mills, which will probably turn into new apartments eventually, this seems to be the way for most of these buildings, I love the blue against the brickwork.

New Next to old, and the waterway system which bought much wealth to Manchester in the cotton industry.

I find it interesting the new next to old, there is a lot of it in Manchester. The starkness of the modern buildings almost offsets the lovely architecture and character of the older building.

This is is a Premier Inn an ugly building, but kind of interesting "pod like" windows

Another large glass house- looks fragile

One of the shop windows in the Northern Quarter

I apologise for going a bit crazy on the photos, I just get a bit excited!

The trip was a great experience and opportunity to get some inspiration for Unit X, and to view it from the upper deck of the bus was a bonus.  I know that I'm feeling the pull from the detail of the historic parts of the city.

Stockport Air Raid Shelter

Stockport air raid shelters is a network of tunnels, nearly a  mile long, was cut out of the red sand stone hills on which Stockport stands, to provide shelter for 6,500 during the Second World War.

The shelters were fitted with basic amenities:electric lights, benches and bunk beds, flushing toilets, first aid post and sick bay - there were even facilities for nursing mothers.

I found it difficult to imagine such vast numbers in such a claustrophobic space, the tunnels were seven feet wide and high, there would have been benches or bunk beds lining either side of this wall surrounded by masses of bodies, children crying, frustrated parents, anxious people not knowing what they would face when emerging from the tunnels.

So much for a bit of privacy! These toilets were basically just part of one large pipe with holes in the top, the smell must have been pretty bad!

Apparently Stockport people say that the bulk of the space in the tunnels was taken up by Manchester folk who had been bombed out of their homes, and that Stockport residents were unable to get in as they weren't given priority, they required a ticket to access the tunnels, hard to imagine checking tickets in the panic of a raid. 

 An example of the posters used in the war, the hats are very fetching!

Stockport Hat Museum

I had a trip to Stockport Hat Museum, It covers the history of hats through to present day.
Hats have been made in Stockport since the 17th Century at this time hats were made from knitted and felted wool and animal fur
At the end of the 19th Century there were over 30 hat factories in Stockport, which is amazing considering the size of the town, the trend then was felt, woolen cloth and stiffened silk.
Manchester focused on the cotton industry.

Wooden hat moulds - I love them!

These two hats are stunning, achieved by laser cutting

hat made of straws

African style

Deadly!

It appears that Stockport was once regarded a grim place, many of the hatters lived in little cottages around the Hillgate area, the 1891 census showed that there were 132 families in this area who had only one room to live in.

This standard of living was described by the social historian F.Engels 1844 as:
"Stockport is notoriously one of the darkest and smokiest holes in the industrial area, and particuarly when seen from the viaduct presents a truly revolting picture. But the cottage and celler dwellings of the workers are even more unplesent to look at. I do not remember seeing elsewhere in the Manchester industrial district so many inhabited cellers in proportion to the total number of houses."